The
Bolsheviks set up again the Communist International, or Comintern.

The
Comintern became the greatest force for liberation in the history of the world.
It led the fight for freedom from imperialism and colonialism all over the
world.

Where it did not lead this fight, it inspired and aided those who
did.

Workers and employees throughout the world got social welfare
benefits

* because their own struggles were inspired by the successes of
the Bolsheviks in taking and holding state power,

* and also because
capitalists around the world yielded reforms to try to keep workers from leading
revolutions and overthrowing the profit system altogether!

The Comintern
led the world in fighting racism and sexism. It inspired the greatest works of
20th century art. It opposed religious obscurantism.

The Communist
movement led the fight against fascism everywhere. Fascism -- the ideology of
capitalism in crisis -- killed tens or hundreds of millions, but in the last
analysis was no match for the communist movement.

For tens of millions of
working people, intellectuals, students, and others, the title "communist"
became the proudest badge of honor.

No movement in world history is so
rich with lessons, both positive and negative, for the working people of the
world to study and learn from, in order to do it better next time.

The
Comintern and world communist movement ultimately turned into their opposites.
They reverted to capitalism. This happened because of internal weaknesses,
contradictions, and errors.

It also happened because the Bolsheviks were
the first! Many of the mistakes they made, they made because they were "blazing
the trial", trying to build communism when it had never been done
before.

Major errors were inevitable. We can, must, and will learn from
them.

Ever since 1917 the capitalists have promoted a huge flood of lies
about the communist movement, particularly against Joseph Stalin, who led the
Bolshevik Party from the late 1920s until his death in 1953.

Leon Trotsky
invented many of these falsehoods. In fact, little that Trotsky wrote during the
1930s about the USSR was true. Most of it was conscious falsehoods -- Trotsky
knew he was lying. This was convenient for him, and also for the
capitalists.

We need to be "critically critical". It is a huge error to
simply "believe" horror stories about the communist movement, Stalin, the
Comintern, and the Bolshevik Party.

The Bolsheviks did the main thing
RIGHT! They dared to seize power from the capitalists, and dared to fight hard
and successfully to hold onto it.

We are, and should be, inspired by
them. We "stand on the shoulders of giants", the Bolsheviks, who led the first
successful working-class communist revolution 95 years ago
today.

"Standing on the shoulders of giants" means that we can -- or
ought to be able to -- see farther than they could.

That means learning
from their errors, as well as from their successes. That's our
task.